Angela Sheets speaks about $1 million donation

Towards the end of Mauri Ditzler’s inaugural ceremony, it was hard not to feel stirred by the enthusiasm and hopeful energy that radiated off the Quad. The announcement of a $1 million donation by Albion College Board of Trustees chair Donald Sheets and his wife Angela, both ‘82 alumni, served as an inspiring capstone to an emotional inauguration.

The Sheets’ donation will be used to create an endowment for a scholarship fund for Albion College students. This means that the Sheets’ $1 million won’t be spent directly on scholarships. The money will instead be the principal for a fund that can replenish itself with certain amounts of money released for investment purposes. A certain amount will then be dedicated to scholarships. This way, an initial investment can have a much greater impact than if it is just chipped away at over time.

Angela Sheets spoke to The Pleiad over the phone to talk some details about the donation and her relationship to her alma mater.

Sheets said that while she and her husband had always planned to donate to Albion College through their estate, they felt that the time was right to give earlier as well. She cited the benefits Albion gave not only in the form of education, but also her relationship with her husband.

“Don and I feel that we owe everything in our lives to having met at Albion and the education Albion provided us,” Sheets said. “We’ve had a tremendous number of blessings in our lives, and it all comes back to our Albion roots.”

When asked how it felt to be a benefactor to her alma mater, Sheets humbly responded that it hadn’t really sunk in yet. She said that her role as a volunteer for the College stuck out more to her.

Sheets serves as an Albion Ambassador as part of an Albion College admissions department initiative to bring alumni representatives and parents of students into the process of recruiting new students. Sheets worked as a tour guide and tour guide coordinator during her time as an undergraduate at Albion College, and her more recent role as an Ambassador fit right into her previous work experience with marketing the college.

Sheets’ outlook on Albion as it moves forward is cheerful, and she voiced her support for president Ditzler and his motions to work with the community.

“The future for Albion is very bright under president Ditzler’s leadership,” Sheets said. “You can tell he already loves Albion. I think he’s going to do great things for the relationship between the college and the community.”